Diotimos Library · Renaissance Collection · Bilingual Edition
Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum
The 1599 German text with a new English translation, introduction, glossary, and notes.
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Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum · Printed Page 132
Early New High German
p. 132allbereit etliche mahl verfertiget gehabt hatte; Dahero / vnd als dann were er erst recht gewis gewesen seines vorigen vermeinten jhme eingebildeten wissens. Antwort: Were sein voriges wissen nicht gewis vnd wahr gewesen / welches er aus allerhanden gnugsamen Naturgemessen fundamentis in seinem cerebello jhme ideiret hatte / vnd hette er demselbigen nicht nachgearbeitet / so were er auch zu dem gewüntschten guten Ende / dauon er hernacher geschrieben / nicht gekommen. Gienge derhalben noch die Warheit seines wissens / der Arbeit seines Operis vorhero. Seine eigene Worte lauten also: Postquam, inquit, sciui artem, familiarem† notitiam habui cum quindetim bonis uiris, qui pariter sciebant LAPIDIS artificium, & præcipuè cum quodam
Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum: Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum
p. 132already finished several times over; and thereupon, and only then, would he first have been rightly certain of his former supposed knowledge, which he had imagined to himself. Answer: Had his former knowledge not been certain and true — which out of all manner of sufficient Nature-conforming foundations he had ideated for himself in his little brain — and had he not worked in accordance with that same, then would he not have come either to the wished-for good End of which he afterwards wrote. Therefore the Truth of his knowledge did still go before the Labour of his Work. His own Words run thus: Postquam, inquit, sciui artem, familiarem notitiam habui cum quindetim bonis uiris, qui pariter sciebant LAPIDIS artificium, & præcipuè cum quodam
Socrates
Reading Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum · Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum · Printed Page 132
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Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.About This Reading Edition
Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum argues that alchemy has one universal subject, that this subject cannot be extracted from the metals, and that nothing in the work can begin without recognizing it. This complete reader begins with the supplied seven-part introduction and orientation, then presents every printed page of the 1599 German treatise opposite its new English translation.
Historical Text and Translation
The German reading text is a fresh diplomatic transcription from 600 dpi images of the Magdeburg copy printed by Johann Bötcher in 1599. It preserves Khunrath’s capitalization, word division, authorial marginal keys, glosses, errata, and three unnumbered closing pages: the errata leaf, owl emblem, and colophon.
About Diotimos Editions
Diotimos Editions prepared the new English translation, introduction, notes, glossary, collation, and editorial apparatus. The translation follows Khunrath directly, retaining his technical vocabulary, changes of register, repetitions, rhetorical questions, and distinctions between German, Latin, and coined terms.
Rights
Heinrich Khunrath’s 1599 German work is in the public domain. The 2026 English translation, introduction, notes, glossary, editorial arrangement, and related matter are original to this edition and remain © 2026 Diotimos.